Soaking rain forecast for Upstate

Tiffany Barnes of Blythewood, a freshman at Anderson University, reads a history textbook on her iPad at Cater's Lake in Anderson. The afternoon temperatures reached 70-degrees.

Jeff Lee, with Anderson County Roads and Bridges, packs dirt around a drainage pipe on Boyd Street in Anderson.

ANDERSON - The Anderson area awaits a soaking Wednesday. It won't be enough to end severe drought, but it will enable to area to finish January with a higher-than-usual rainfall total.

Pushed by a persistent south wind of 15 to 24 miles an hour, steady showers and patchy fog are expected to arrive early Wednesday and bring thunderstorms and possible hail in the afternoon. By the time the weather front dissipates Wednesday night, the National Weather Service expects 1-2 inches of rain to fall in the Anderson area.

Gusts up to 40 miles an hour are anticipated. Temperatures are expected to reach the high 60s, falling to the upper 30s overnight.

The storm will raise the rainfall total for January, already a half-inch more than normal, to more than five inches. Historically, January ranks as the third-wettest month in the Anderson area with an average rainfall of 4.04 inches. March (4.96 inches) and September (4.08 inches) typically bring the area's highest rainfall totals.

South Carolina state climatologist Hope Mizzell said the wetter-than-usual January is not likely to change the severe drought conditions that exist for Anderson, Pickens and Oconee counties,

"That area is in a hydrologic drought. It didn't get that way in one month," Mizzell said Tuesday, "and we'll not get out of it with one month of above-average rainfall."

Mizzell is a member of the South Carolina Department of Natural Resources Drought Response Committee, which is scheduled to meet in a conference call Thursday morning to evaluate the situation. The committee reviews climatic data, streamflow, lake-level data, and drought effects.

The water level at Hartwell Lake stood at 650.4 feet above sea level Tuesday, about 9½ feet lower than full pool. That was several feet lower than its level in January 2012 and January 2011.

Anderson, Oconee and Pickens are among 12 South Carolina counties, all in a corridor near the Georgia state line, that are in severe drought. Twenty other counties are in moderate drought.

Clear skies are expected to greet the Upstate onThursday and continue through Monday. Each day, temperatures are expected to range from highs in the 50s to lows in the 30s.